Kadai paneer, a mouthwatering combination of paneer, capsicum, tomato, onion and traditional Indian spices cooked in ghee, is one of the most popular curry recipes of Indian and Punjabi cuisine. It is a main course curry recipe and generally served with Indian breads like roti, naan, kulcha, paratha, etc. Due to its exotic taste and looks, it generally finds its way into the menu of important functions like marriage. Learn how to make it in minutes with this step by step photo recipe.

To make this curry without gravy, skip adding tomato puree (in step-6), water (in step-9) and fresh cream (in step-11).

Notes:

Tomato puree and fresh cream are optional ingredients in this recipe. If they are not available, you can skip them to make this paneer kadai curry.

Directions:

Dry roast coriander seeds, kashmiri red chilli and green cardamom until nice aroma releases, for around 1-minute over low flame. Turn off flame and grind them in a grinder until smooth powder. Keep aside until required.

If you are using frozen paneer, then defrost it before cooking. Place cubes in hot water for 7-8 minutes to keep them soft. Drain a them and keep aside until required.

Heat oil or ghee in a non-stick pan over medium flame. Add chopped onion and sauté until it turns translucent.

Add ginger-garlic paste and red chilli powder; sauté for 1-2 minutes.

Add chopped tomatoes and mix well.

Cook until they turn tender and oil starts to separate or for around 4-5 minutes. Add crushed spices powder (prepared in step-1), mix well and cook for 2-minutes. Add tomato puree and mix.

Mix well and turn off flame. Do not cook for longer after adding fresh cream otherwise it may curdle. Transfer prepared curry to a serving bowl and serve hot.

Tips and Variations:

This easy and authentic recipe uses paneer cubes directly. However, you can shallow fry them (either in oil or ghee) until light brown for variation in taste.

You can use tofu instead of paneer if later is not available.

Taste: Spicy with thick gravy.

Serving Ideas: Serve kadai paneer with butter naan, lachha paratha or tandoori roti and onion cucumber and tomato salad. When this curry and Indian bread are accompanied with a glass of lassi, it becomes an authentic Punjabi meal.

Other Step by Step Recipes

Post a comment ( * fields are required)

42 Comments

Nov 16, 2017 by Maya raveendran

I made it..really it came out well.. thanks a lot for this wonderful recipe.. yummy ..

Nov 01, 2017 by Alex

Am latin, but I have indian husband and indian MOTHER IN LAW so, am fighting in the kitchen trying to qualify "no-so-bad" as always!Thanks for help me! I try and really I feel that I cook good, but some people never will be happy! Thanks really!

Jul 17, 2017 by s mukherjee

Good one very good receipies.

Jun 08, 2017 by Neha shukla

I loved the recipe... it's yummyyy...

Jun 02, 2017 by monu

It is very good. I loved the pictures.

Feb 25, 2017 by Ravi

Sorry last time I did not see rating tab. I overlooked it. I would give 5* for every receipe. For every dish from FoodViva, which I've cooked, got it right and very tasty, I've tried at least 20 dishes Panneer dishes, Daal dishes, south and North Indian dishes, every time its right. I blindly follow the receipe explaination and getting right. My wife says can open restaurant. That shows Foodviva details of receipe. Last week for my son's birthday I cooked for 9 people Daal makhani and Kadai Panneer. I had great feeling from feed back. I told its from Foodviva. :)

Response: Thank you Ravi for sharing the wonderful feedback.

Feb 25, 2017 by Manju

Thanks for this recipe my parents liked it very well...and it came very well but it was less spicy....

Response: Hello Manju, you can increase the amount of red chilli powder to make it more spicy.

Feb 05, 2017 by Maryann Raj

Omg delicious! I added red pepper as well and it balanced out the spice nicely.

The dish was pretty easy to make, and delicious to eat. Thank you so much for such an amazing recipe :) One thing though- the appearance was not what I had expected....

Jun 03, 2015 by Pawan Gupta

It's a good recipe and I always love kadai paneer. Loved it.

May 22, 2015 by Seema

I love cooking from your recipes as it always turns out to be a yummy dish. Thanks.

Apr 24, 2015 by Ropesh thounaojam

I have just tried. It's easy. But I add green chilies. Though it doesn't look yummy but the taste was like yummy yummy :)

Apr 04, 2015 by Shashi Pal Singh

I have tried it successfully. The whole family was very happy to enjoy the tasty dish. This recipe was like high class restaurant preparation. Thank you very very much.

Mar 14, 2015 by Sushma

It was tasty and also enjoyable but I did not like its flavor.

Nov 04, 2014 by arghadeep das

I didn't know what would be the result, but it was just awesome. So easy procedure reduced my manual effort. Great, must try.

Oct 28, 2014 by yasmin

It is really tasty. Thank you very much.

Oct 21, 2014 by Jeeva

I had tried to make the dish from another site and it turned out horrible.. I was scared to try this today, but I must say... I LOVED it....:):):) thank u so much, it was really really easy and it really tasty.. I added a little bit of sugar to give it a slightly sweet taste.

Oct 19, 2014 by Trupti kapdia

I made it today... The result was amazing. I added a little garam masala as I felt it was bland.

Oct 06, 2014 by athira

Super veggie dish! Thank you for the easy explanation about the dish!

Oct 04, 2014 by sonal rajani

Thanks for your superb recipe. And thanks for your wonderful tip to use tomato puree along with chopped tomatoes. I never knew this. Would love to see your website for more different kind of restaurant style of recipes.

Sep 17, 2014 by NISHAT

Hi, I m so much fond of cooking and eating new dishes and I appreciate and thank for your recipes. They are really very nice please post more recipes specially of paneer. Thanks a lot.